Solving button bloat

So we all know Blizzard is looking to solve the problem of too many abilities (while probably looking to add new ones at level 100). Here's an idea I haven't heard before to solve the problem without losing some peoples' beloved spells/abilities.

I've got two basic ideas.

1. What if we were to go back to where you got certain abilities for your class based on your race? Remember Fear Ward for dwarf priests? Devouring plague being an undead only spell? Before you cry "Balance issues!", think a little further. Obviously you wouldn't give class defining abilities to only one race. Additionally, we could have a little more flavor and less homogenization this way.

2. If the above idea feels too constricting or if you're worried they might give your favorite ability to a race other than your current main's, maybe this idea would work better. What if certain specs have further specialization? In the same way that Engineering has Goblin/Gnome (something that should be developed even further imo), you could have certain types of combat rogue that give certain abilities. Again, this adds additional flavor and reduces homogenization. Yes yes, I understand the min-maxers will still end up with what is optimal, but with item squish and the way Blizzard is changing how base amounts work with abilities, it seems like having balance could become an easier task than before.

Thoughts?

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additionally, I would love to hear any ideas on which abilities would go with which races or subgroups.

There's a reason they removed the race specific priest spells, the game is already a nightmare to balance. This is never gonna happen.

Did you read the whole post? I think you could spread out some of the abilities that might be headed for the trash bin and end up with something that feels fresher and more interesting instead of something that just feels dumbed down.

Just bake some of them into the rotation like they did with hunters with that glyph for hunter's mark. You glyph it so arcane shot applies it.
Warlocks need this for curse of elements, that and the UI needs to be updated so it shows other warlocks when another warlock is using curse of elements.

My name is Cernunnos, I will love you like no other, I have died a thousand deaths, each time I died I thought of you.

The big problem is that every class feels that they need a million "oh crap" buttons for every situation. Throw in a few utility abilities and viola you have button bloat. That was a major plus to the old style talent tress, they helped with keeping that under control by making you pick one button over another. You want to be top grade DPS? Here have this DPS based ability, however, you won't have enough points to buy those three other utilities (sprint, stun, damage mitigation, ect.) that you were looking at.

There aren't too many solutions to this outside of outright cutting class abilities in half, which would cause even greater homogenization.

"It was Ivan, the Dwarf sentry who wore the novelty horse head mask because he thought it was funny. It wasn’t. Marvar was very sure on this point."

"Too many abilities" isn't a problem unless those abilities have no practical use. Part of the game should be people deciding what abilities should be easy to access and which shouldn't. This is different from other games where you have to choose which abilities you WANT to use and which you don't.. ie: d3, gw2, ff14 etc... Personally, the system has worked for over seven years now.. if it ain't broke don't fix it.

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Originally Posted by Edoran

Blizzard has been showing for several expansions now that they prefer some level of homogenization. Unfortunately for us, it will never go back the other way.

Yup, this is the sad truth. The reality is that the game becomes easier to produce and balance if all classes are similar.. thus saving Blizzard money, time. A lot of their developmental decisions have been along these same trends.